


Youth in Revolt

by wierdrocks



Series: Young and Hopelss [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Avengers Academy, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Runaways (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Not Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 Compliant, Panic Attacks, children under attack, references to past violence and abuse, trip not knowing wtf is going on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-01
Updated: 2016-05-18
Packaged: 2018-02-06 23:35:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 17,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1876734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wierdrocks/pseuds/wierdrocks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ward's first gig doesn't go the way he'd imagined</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

His reflection was different. He couldn't really place why it was different, only that something about it was... Off. But a good kind of off. He ran his palm over the scratchy five o'clock shadow he'd taken to maintaining. He wasn't a soldier anymore. He was a cook. That realization hit him like a freight train and his hand barely caught the sink in time to keep him from falling over. He wasn't a soldier. But he'd always been a soldier, hadn't he? How could he be anything else? He shook his head to clear it but that didn't really help.  
There was a knock on the bathroom door and he moved to open it right away.  
“Hey.” Chase yawned, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “Listen, we’re off right after breakfast, okay?” Ward nodded. “Cool. Hey?” Ward raised his eyebrows. “You okay? You look, I donno, shaken or something.” He narrowed his eyes. Ward shook his head.  
“I’m fine.” He signed.  
“Sure?”  
“Yes. Fine.”  
The blond nodded. “Cool. Good. Hey, can you go wake up Kenny? I tried but dude’s a literal rock.” Ward smiled and nodded.

 

The walls of Kenny’s room were covered in photographs. They were mostly of his time at the Hostile, but there were others of him and other Runaways whom he’d helped, as well as a few select shots of his early life on Maui. He also had a surf board suspended above his bed and his comforter was printed with a tropical flower pattern. Ward found him lying face down in his bed, snoring loudly.  
He sat down on the edge of the bed and put a hand on the boy’s back, rubbing gently. Kenny’s skin wasn’t really… skin. Ward could feel its metal-like surface beneath Kenny’s sleep shirt. He had never explained how he received his abilities. Molly had been born super human, inheriting abnormal qualities from her parents, Karolina was an alien, Klara had been born with her powers as well, though she was the first in her family to exhibit super human tendencies. Chase and Gert were both completely human; Gert’s telepathic bond with Old Lace was surgically implanted. If you can use that word for such things. Kenny, however, never spoke about his origins. The others didn’t seem to be quite clear on them either, but Ward hadn’t pried.  
Kenny grumbled and shifted in his sleep, moving to put a pillow on top of his head. Ward tapped him gently on the shoulder.  
“Don’t wanna.” He mumbled. Ward tapped again. “Aw come on, Cook.” He rolled over onto his side and curled into a ball. Ward shook him. He finally rolled onto his back and looked at Ward. He raised his eyebrows.  
“Something wrong?” He signed.  
“No,” Kenny yawned. “I’m fine.”  
“Then get out of bed. You’ve got the bar first.”  
“I don’t wanna.” He wacked his pillows, causing one of them to explode and spew feathers clear across the room. Ward’s shoulder’s dropped. They looked at each other for a few moments. “I’m gonna get out of bed now.”  
“Maybe that’s a good idea.”


	2. Chapter 2

“You’re good at this.” Molly said. She was sitting on the kitchen island forking the last of her strawberry and chocolate-hazel nut crepe into her mouth. Ward smiled. He was clearing breakfast away to get ready for the bar to open. “I’m serious. You’re nickname really fits, Cook.” She smiled at him, chocolate smeared across her mouth.  
“Thank you.” He signed. The door swung open and Chase poked his head in.  
“Hey, Molls, suit up, we got a gig.” He turned to Ward. “Kenny’s got the bar.” Ward nodded.  
“Be careful.” He knew the sign for that. Chase nodded and Molly scurried out of the room. 

“I know, I know.” Gert pet Old Lace’s partially feathered head. She looked up at her like she whole-heartedly believed that if she looked just pathetic enough, either Arsenic would stay, or she would get to go along on the gig. “This mission is a strict no-dino zone, Lace. I don’t wanna leave you either, but I’ll be back.” She kissed the place between the raptor’s eyes.  
“Klara’s first gig, Klara’s first gig.” Kenny’s sing-songing seemed to upset Old Lace. She stamped about and wiggled her tail and Ward imagined her inner monologue as something along the lines of, “Why is Klara going if I can’t go? Do you understand how small Klara is? She is the tiniest of the humans. I should be going. This is stupid.”  
“You understand why we need you right?” Chase asked, helping her into her bullet proof vest. Klara’s go clothes were off white and a little loose for Ward’s liking; they might snag of something. However, he understood that form-fitting clothes weren’t really something Klara could do. Safety features would be no use if their fit was preventing her from doing her job.  
“The girl we’re saving was traded like a commodity like I was.” Klara said that almost too calmly.  
“Which makes you qualified to talk her down off of anything we might need to talk her down off of.” Chase said, checking his checklist one more time. “Okay, looks like we’re good.” He looked at Ward. “Go food?” Ward held up one metal lunch box; the gig was relatively close so they wouldn’t need food for the journey, but they didn’t know what state their target would be in when they found her. “And the box?”  
“Right here.” Karolina held up a metal box by its handle that was maybe a foot and a half square.  
“What’s that for?” Molly asked. Briefings for gigs she wasn’t assigned on were not something that could keep Molly’s attention for long.  
“Target’s a superhuman, this is some Majesdanian-Human hybrid tech Victor over at the Treehouse whipped up.” She explained. “It’s gonna help us transport her safely.”  
“What if she doesn’t wanna wear it?” Molly narrowed her eyes. There was a pause. Everyone looked around at everyone.  
“We will burn that bridge if and when we come to it, guys.” Chase said, pulling on a pair of metal-plated gloves. “Let’s get in the van.”


	3. Chapter 3

The morning progressed as most mornings did. Regulars came and went, Kenny, who was working the bar, shouted through the window exaggerated versions of whatever complements to the chef Ward received.  
"This omelet is the best I've had here yet." Became "You're omelet has opened this man's eyes to brand new possibilities, Cookie." And "Tell your chef I said 'Hi'." From a winking woman in a floppy sun hat became, "Cook, you have a love interest. Prepare thine rom-com cliches." Which Ward pretended didn't make him uncomfortable.  
As always, the customer flow lulled eventually and Kenny took advantage of the empty space to turn the jukebox up. Ward had never thought that head banging to Polynesian a cappella had been possible, but Kenny definitely managed it.  
"Hey." He yelled over a loud Hawaiian ballad about surfing (Ward knew that because he'd asked at the third time Kenny played it). He poked his head through the window, hands near his face so he could sign. "You want me to put, like, Les Mis in the queue or something?" Ward raised his hands to answer, only to be interrupted by a noise in the barroom.  
He rushed out of the kitchen to find that the noise had been Molly bursting in from the elevator closet and tripping on the way. She shook out of Kenny's grip when he tried to help her up.  
"I'm fine, I'm fine! A distress signal just came through!"  
“What?” Kenny’s eyes went wide. “We haven’t had a gig with this big a team go south in,” He started counting on his fingers.  
“Kenneth!” Molly shrieked. “This is no time for statistics!” She shoved at him. molly was probably the only person on Earth who could move Ken Mack while he had his feet planted. Well, maybe The Hulk, but Ward couldn’t imagine a scenario where the two of them would be together and no getting along.  
“What do we do?” Ward asked. Molly looked at him strangely.  
“What'd you mean 'What do we do?' We go and get them.”


	4. Chapter 4

"They're inside this big pseudo-military installation with like gun turrets and armed security." Molly explained almost absent-mindedly as she checked the straps on Old Lace’s bullet proof vest. Ward gaped. The Runaways' usual target locations were, at their biggest, the mansion of some neglectful billionaire, and an alcoholic's trailer at their smallest. Or at least they had been during his tenure. Maybe the bullet proof vests weren't as much of an over-precaution as he'd previously thought.   
"Those are the kind of places you used to break into right?" He nodded. “Okay, then we should be good.” She rolled her shoulders. “It’s probably nothing. Once Chase leaned on the button by accident while him and me were out grabbing this kid out an alcoholic’s house. The whole team stormed the front door while we were trying to have a calm conversation about the impact addiction has on family members.” She smiled fondly. “That kid’s at the Treehouse now. He’s great.” Her cellphone beeped. "Our ride's here.”  
They lead an agitated Old Lace to the elevator and Kenny met them at the closet door.   
“Nicco’s up top.” He said as he handed them each a wrist com and a power bar. “I’m staying here. Partly to hold the fort, and partly because big pseudo-military installations give me some serious heebies.”  
"Stay safe." Ward told him. He laughed.  
"Cook, you are some piece of work, you know that?" Ward smiled. 

Their ride, it turned out, was a green military helicopter and at this point Ward was pretty much done questioning things. The pilot was a teenaged girl whose uniform was black and red and accented with skulls and spider webs.   
"Hey I'm Nicco." She said as they were taking off. "Sister Grimm."  
"This is Cookie." Molly said. “You remember Kar’s trip to The Shop, right? Nicco’s their Chase." She explained. Ward figured that meant she was in charge of landing her team gigs and managing records.   
"Nice to meet you." She threw over her shoulder. He nodded and settled into his seat. Molly settled across from him and Old Lace lay down at his feet. “We’re good to go, Grim.” Molly called.  
“Alright, let’s go see what these chuckleheads got themselves into.”


	5. Chapter 5

Ward squeezed his eyes shut. His chest felt tight. His heart was pounding, his breathing shallow. His fingers gripped the sides of his seat until his knuckles turned white.   
“Hey.” Molly’s voice. He felt her put a hand on his knee. “Hey, Cook, I need you to give me your phone.” He opened his eyes slowly, and peeled a hand off the chair even slower to reach into one of the many pockets on his jacket. She swiped at his phone for a few moments before turning it so he could see. “Look, Cookie.” On the screen were four sets of vitals: heartbeat, blood pressure, even something that read brain activity. Molly poked at the screen again and three more sets popped up. Ward looked down at the com on his wrist.  
“That’s us, and that’s them, see? They’re fine. I mean, they’re a little elevated. We all need to calm down, but no one is dead and no one is unconscious. We are going to go in there and we are going to bring them back safe and sound.” He desperately wanted to be able to believe her. The only things running through his mind was that he going to lose another family. He was going to lose them because he wasn’t there to protect them. Why wasn’t he there to protect them? How could he have been so naïve? So selfish? Why was he so selfish?  
“Cookie, breathe.” Molly said calmly. Then she took a deep breath through her nose and let it out through her mouth. She repeated this action twice before he caught on and began breathing with her. Old Lace padded over, claws clicking on the metal floor, and laid her head on his lap. Molly kept breathing with him until his heart rate had settled down.  
“You good?” She asked, hand on his arm. He nodded.   
“Good.” She got up and returned to her seat. Old Lace stayed where she was and let out some clicking noises that were oddly comforting. “I need you to stay calm. Can you do that?” He nodded again. She nodded back. Ward looked down at that seven heart beats displayed on his phone screen. There would still be seven by the end of this day. Seven. Not six. There was a time where he would have been happy with six. Six would have been fine. Six might have been preferable. Not this time. Not ever again. Seven heart beats.


	6. Chapter 6

“Old Lace can get us to Gert. If they’ve been separated, we’ll turn on the locators.” Molly explained as they approached the compound. “Doing that risks someone hacking our feed and knowing where all of us are so it’s not our first choice.” Ward nodded. “We stick together until we find Gert. If we need to change the plan from there, we will, but right now we operate under the assumption that they haven’t been separated.” They were at the entrance now. It was a steel door maybe five or six inches thick. It clearly took a little more energy to do so than Ward was used to seeing Molly exert, but she got it off the hinges. Ward raised his gun.  
“Stealth is not my forte.” She threw a smirk over his shoulder.  
The three of them made it maybe ten feet down a corridor before an armed guard got a stunner to the chest. He fell with a thud, knocking into his partner, who was then also stunned.   
Old Lace led them down a series of passages, all manned by fairly easily felled guard. Ward remembered that the ammo for his gun was finite and began running ahead of Molly and Lace to through punches. Molly caught on to this quickly and was having none of Grant Ward’s self-sacrificing bullshit today. (Old habits.) Guards began crying out as their leg bones were shattered into tiny pieces by a pink aluminum baseball bat. Old Lace’s teeth shredded through flesh.  
The raptor stopped suddenly as they rounded a corner, only to dart off quickly again and all but ram herself against a steel door. Ward had never heard the creature roar before. She scratched furiously at the door, and then let out another roar. The sound was unlike any he had ever heard.


	7. Chapter 7

"So," The blond boy looked up for the first time since they'd been put in this room. Holding them all together was dangerous and stupid. These people were definitely HYDRA but there didn't seem to be any kind of on-sight lead; no one seemed to be giving orders of any kind. These were all scared grunts protecting their asset the best they could now that their superiors had been rooted out and imprisoned (or blown up. Coulson almost let himself laugh at the memory). "You guys have backup coming?" The boy asked.  
"Absolutely." Coulson smiled. These kids had shown up out of nowhere and beat the crap out of a couple of grunts before they'd all been over taken. Sometimes even desperate, low-level Nazis could get the best of you, given the proper desperation.  
"Yeah, you guys don't have anything to worry about. We're SHIELD, what's left of it at least." Simmons shook her head. "We've got people on site. Good people." The blond boy nodded. The girl with the lilac hair glared at her through her glasses. "And we're going to get your friend back."  
"You guys have any idea why they'd take her away, hold her separately?" Skye was still trying to fiddle with her restraints, straining against the metal. "What would HYDRA want with her?" The blond smiled. Lilac Hair looked at Skye like the hacktavist had just grown a second head. "Guys, come on, you broke into this place by yourselves, you have to have known what it is. These guys are HYDRA, bumbling idiot HYDRA, but definitely HYDRA. Nazis. They kill people." The third girl, the one sitting between Blond and Lilac, let out a muffled cry.  
"Hey," Skye leaned forward. "Hey, I’m sorry for scaring you, it's alright."  
"Skye's right,” Coulson said softly. “You're all going to be just fine."  
"Roses!" The blond cried suddenly. Coulson, Skye, and Simmons jumped. "Roses?"  
"Yes?" She answered quietly.  
"Count backwards from a hundred."  
"Wh, what?" She asked a little louder.  
"Count." The girl with the lilac hair spoke. "Backwards from one hundred, Roses." Roses nodded and began counting, voice quiet and shaky.  
"Good." The blond nodded. "Keep counting. Backup's almost here."


	8. Chapter 8

Roses had gotten into the forties when they heard the gunshots.   
"The Cavalry." Skye smiled. Her face fell at hearing whatever that horrifying sound was. Coulson instinctively turned his body to somehow put himself between the door and his teammates. The sound happened again, this time accompanied by a scratching.  
"What was that?" Skye asked.   
"I've never heard a cry like that before." Simmons shook her head. "Like a bird, but also not a bird, like a lizard's hiss."   
"Godzilla." Fitz' voice came over their ear buds.   
"Fitz." Simmons sighed.   
"What? Don't tell me you weren't thinking it."   
"We weren't, Fitz." Coulson said disapprovingly. He was choosing to ignore the way the kids, even Roses, her cheeks damp, were giggling to themselves.   
"How are we doing on those security feeds?" Skye asked. The blond made a face.   
"Still locked out. I just don’t have your skills, Skye.”  
Skye sighed.  
“Whoever did this must've been on sight.” She furrowed her brow. “It’s too sophis,” She looked over at the kids. “Ticated…”  
"Sorry 'bout that." The blond laughed.   
"That's not funny." Coulson said, ready to both scold and interrogate these teenagers. What were they doing here anyway? But you can't really do either of those things when the armored door is flying across the room.


	9. Chapter 9

"A dinosaur." Simmons breathed.  
"What?" Fitz asked.   
"A dinosaur." Simmons repeated as she watched the creature stock into the room.   
"What?"   
"A dinosaur, Fitz. An actual dinosaur, a raptor."  
"Does it appear friendly?" He sounded like he was trying to contain his excitement. The raptor itself meanwhile was walking straight up to the girl with lilac hair. Skye gasped. She had probably been about to scream as the purple and tan dinosaur parted its jaw. But then it began lapping at the girl's face playfully, her giggling like it was normal for a dinosaur to lick one's face, which... No. Next through the door was a little girl wearing a pink baseball cap. She couldn’t have been more than twelve.  
"What'd I say before?" The blond asked with a chuckle. "And you guys were worried."


	10. Chapter 10

Trip came around the corner with his gun drawn. Whatever had made that sound... Had it also torn the door off? And what did that have to do with Grant Ward?  
May had gone around the other way. Trip imagined any guards wouldn't be slowing her down for long. Ward immediately put his hands in the air when he saw Trip. Normally Trip might have gone on the offensive, but there was still the mystery if the door, he had no idea what the status of the team was, and Ward... Well, he looked pretty good for a traitor-flavored stain on the pavement (Skye's words, not his). But also, he looked scared. Not scared in general, or scared of this place or whatever he was doing inside of it; scared of Trip. And damn it if that didn't trigger something inside of him. If anyone should feel anything around Antoine Tripplet, it should not be fear. It definitely not be the unadulterated terror in Grant Ward's eyes. He lowered his gun, but not his guard.  
Trip made what were supposed to be calming gestures, but nothing in Ward's stance changed. He resorted to nodding to the door between them. Ward nodded once. Clear? Trip crept around the edge of the door again, gun raised in caution.   
There was a dinosaur in this room.   
Trip lowered his weapon at the sight of what was definitely a giant feathery lizard with a ring through its nose happily nuzzling a teenaged girl with lilac hair. A small girl with curly hair leveled the aluminum baseball she carried at him, eyes narrow.  
"Trip!" Skye threw her arms around him. "Where's May?"  
"I don't know." He looked over at Coulson.   
"Sir, we should talk."   
"I know." Coulson shrugged half- heartedly. "She's a dinosaur. Her name's Old Lace, this is Arsenic, Roses, Talkback, and Bruiser." The kids all nodded at him warily.   
"A dinosaur, Antoine!" Simmons shrieked, ringing her hands as if to avoid reaching out and touching the creature.   
"No, sir, that's not what I meant,"   
"We have to find May." Skye moved toward the door. Trip caught her arm.   
"Guys," Trip said a little too late. Ward was in the door frame now, walking backwards down the hall with his hands up, gun nowhere to be seen.  
"What the hell?" Skye sounded enraged. Trip supposed she had a right to be. They'd been operating for the past few months under the assumption that Grant Ward was dead and gone; no longer their problem. Now here he was alive and (seemingly) well. At least May was pointing a gun at him. Though, what was up with the blonde teenager she had slung over her shoulder, he could only guess.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a Mulan reference in this chapter.

The look on his face was unbelievable. He comes back from the dead (completely unwarranted; no one wanted him back except as a sparring dummy) and he has the nerve to look angry and threatened? If she didn't have this poor girl over her shoulder she'd drop him like a hot pot sticker.  
"Hello Ward." May said politely. He put his gun down. Good. He put his hands in the air and started backing away. Even better. "Nothing to say?" He shook his head, getting to the other side of the door. Through her periphery she saw the door had been ripping off its hinges. She could wonder about that later. She also saw her team. Good. Safe. Maybe one of them could take care of this girl while she whooped Ward's ass. Again.

There was a small tap on the back of May’s leg. She looked down, figuring it was safe to get eyes off of Grant since Skye and Coulson both had their guns trained on him. What she see saw was a girl. She'd tapped her with a bat.   
"Put her down." The girl smiled. Did they know each other? How many kids was HYDRA keeping here?   
"Sure." May said, then stooped to set the long-haired blonde girl carefully on the floor. "How old are you?"  
“Twelve and a half. How old are you?”  
May was standing up straight again. She narrowed her eyes at the girl. Coulson and Skye were moving toward Ward. He was just standing there with his arms raised. The girl prepared to swing her bat. May could've easily stopped the attack but another kid took the opportunity instead,   
"Bruiser no." A blond haired boy said, stepping out into the hallway, brandishing some sort of marble-sized object between his fingers. He was wearing some kind of metal-plated gloves that really should’ve been confiscated. Poor little neo Nazis were so out of their depth.  
"Whatchu mean "Bruiser no"?!" She shrieked, sounding more offended than May has ever heard anyone her age sound. "Don’t "Bruiser no" me! You point a gun at my friend you get kneecapped! That's just how it works! You two might wanna rethink your current course of action!" She was talking to Skye and Coulson. Friend?  
The marble shaped object hit the floor and exploded into a blast of light. When everyone's eyes refocused, there was a glowing humanoid floating between Skye and Ward. Simmons gaped. A superhuman? An alien? An alien! First a dinosaur and now an alien!   
"I don't think hurting Ward is the solution here!" Fitz' voice rang in their earpieces. "Especially since he seems to not be alone here."   
"Fitz, if it wasn't for Ward, you wouldn't be sitting at home base paralyzed!" Skye snapped. "Did you hear that? The guy you’re protecting, he hurts people, kills people, he's HYDRA. You know what that means?"  
"You will not harm my friend." The alien said calmly. She reached out with one, glowing hand and light flashed again, this time... More organic? Definitely a different kind of light. When everyone could see again, Coulson and Skye's guns were gone.   
"Maybe we got off on the wrong foot." Coulson said as Bruiser walked forward. She was carrying a silvery weapon that reminded Simmons of the Night Night gun.  
"You're right." Talkback clapped a hand on Coulson's shoulder. "Hi everybody." He moved toward Ward and threw an arm around him. "Hi, Cookie." He smiled. Ward made some gestures with his hands that might have been American Sign Language. "We're fine.” Talkback continued. “I'm fine. Roses, you fine?"   
"Fine. Arsenic, Old Lace?"   
"We're fine." Arsenic petted the raptor's head.   
"Lucy, you okay?"   
"I'm alright. Bruiser?"  
"I'm good. We're good. You good, Cookie?" She squeezed Ward's hand. He nodded.   
"Cookie?" Skye scoffed. "Cute nickname."   
"We're the Runaways!" Talkback gestured to the group of them.   
"I've heard of you." May had holstered her weapon. “You're a myth.”  
“Thank you.” All of them but Ward said at the same time. Old Lace made a series of happy-sounding clicking noises.   
"So nice to meet the in-laws." Talkback smirked. "But if you don't mind, we do have a job to do."  
"The box is probably back where they were holding me." Lucy said.   
"Take Bruiser, Arsenic, and Old Lace." He nodded, sliding his goggles (which really should've also been confiscated, the bumbling imbeciles) off his forehead and onto his eyes. "We will find the elevator." He stepped up to Skye. "Skye right?" She nodded. "Hello, Skye. You don't get to hurt him." He smiled. Skye looked offended.  
“Do you even know who he is?”   
“Do yourself a favor.” Talkback put one finger in the air. He was wearing these strange, metal-plated gloves. “Be less concerned with who you think he is, and more concerned with who I actually am.” Skye took a half step back. Those words, the boy’s presence… They were strangely unsettling. She glanced at her team; they seemed to be having the same thoughts. It wasn’t fear really… more like immensely creeped out.  
There was a pause before the boy put hand over his face and chuckled quietly.   
“I’m so sorry.” He sighed. “I’m having a bad day.”   
He turned to face Ward and the others again. Ward made some more gestures, more sign language. Simmons wished that her familiar with signed language wasn’t limited to BSL. Talkback sighed, then turned his head so he could look at Skye again.   
"Cookie would like me to apologize, so... Sorry." He turned back. "Better?" Ward nodded. "Okay. Move." Talkback gestured. They started splitting off.   
"I'd like to know something." Coulson spoke up.  
"Your guns are on the floor behind you." Lucy said.   
"Why are you here?" May completed Coulson's thought. Talkback chuckled. Simmons looked around to find that the group he'd sent after "the box" had slipped away while everyone was focusing on Ward.   
“What's funny?" Trip narrowed his eyes.   
"You think we owe you shit?" The blond snapped. Ward put a hand on his shoulder. He sighed again. “Bad day. I am having a bad day.” He shook his head. “Look, we have a job to do; you have a job to do. Let’s just go our separate ways for now and get what we all came to get done gotten done. Please?” He steepled his hands.  
“Seems fair to me.” May said. “From what I’ve heard of the Runaways, they seem to do good work.”  
“And I guess you guys obviously aren’t HYDRA.” Skye folded her arms in resignation. Simmons, on the other hand, was having absolutely none of this. She moved forward quickly and put all of her weight all of the training she’d been receiving from May into a slap. Ward just stood there with his head whipped to the side for a moment.  
“Jemma!” Fitz shrieked in his ear. Then, quieter, “Jemma, are you alright?”   
“I’m fine.” She said through clenched teeth as Ward turned his head to face her again. “Better.” She smiled at him. His expression, one of fear and concern, didn’t change, and that irked her. What did he have to be afraid of? He was a treacherous Nazi back from the dead who had apparently swindled a gaggle of unsuspecting children into being his body guards. And how dare he be concerned for her or her friends? Her family? How dare he care about their fates now that he’d severally fucked it up? She smacked him again.  
“Okay.” The blond wrapped a hand around her wrist. “Miss, if you don’t stop that, Bruiser is going to hit you with her bat.” A quick glance down confirmed that the backs of her knees were now in the little girl’s sites.   
“Do they know who you are?” She asked Ward. “Do they know what you did?” He nodded once, slowly.   
“Simmons.” Coulson’s voice came from behind her. “We have a job to do.”  
“Yeah.” Skye said. “We can deal with the trash later.”


	12. Chapter 12

"Cookie wants us to get along, T." Bruiser was saying as the four of them marched down the corridor.   
"Sorry, Cook, I get defensive." Cook nodded.   
"I understand." He signed.   
"You know they have no reason to trust him, right?" Bruiser asked. She looked up at Cook. "You know they have no reason to trust you?" He nodded again. “And you waving around the Fistigons and getting in people’s faces isn’t going to help.”  
"Of course they don't, and they probably won't," Talkback waved dismissively. "And I know, I'm just having a bad day... Nothing's going right."   
"It'll be okay." Roses said soothingly. "We just have to focus on the gig."   
Cook's head was swimming. He felt like he might pass out. Seeing them again... Everything was so jarring. He could only imagine what they were going through... Anger, he suspected.   
“It's good about the tech guy... Fitz." Bruiser said. Cook nodded. Paralyzed instead of dead. That was good... That was good? He wouldn't be that way if not for Cook's actions... Cook's stupidity, his weakness. The group stopped suddenly and their oldest member stumbled back a bit, putting his arm against the wall for support. Talkback, Roses, and Bruiser all looked at him, concerned. He had to force a smile for the first time in what felt like forever. Roses took his hand.   
"You're gonna be okay." She said, and then to the others. "We're all gonna be okay."   
"Right." Talkback nodded.   
"Well, Bruiser, I guess you get to take Lu's place and open this up." He patted the wall with one hand and yanked his goggles off his eyes with the other.   
"Stand back." Bruiser said, a little more dramatically than was entirely necessary. Cook smiled a little as she stepped forward, cracking her knuckles.


	13. Chapter 13

“So, the Runaways, who are they?” Skye asked May as their group made their way down the corridor.   
“They’re a rescue operation for abused and neglected kids.” May explained. “I’ve never worked with them, but I’ve heard the stories.”  
“It’s been my experience that stories aren’t always the most reliable.” Trip said even though he was still mulling over the look on Ward’s face. It wasn’t that of some villain. Ward was straight-up scared. But of what? The team?   
“I don’t know if those kids were them, but the Runaways are the definitely the real deal.”  
“How come I’ve never heard of them?” Skye asked.  
“Not sure. Someone like you actually might have been on their radar, Skye.”  
“Maybe SHIELD interfered. They were protecting me the whole time.”  
“Either way,” Coulson said over his shoulder. “These don’t sound like the kind of people we want to leave Ward with.”  
“Stop.” Fitz said over their coms. “This is it, the elevator shaft.” They all looked around the corridor. It was nothing but blanks walls.   
“Uh, Fitz,” Skye pressed a hand to the wall.   
“It’s on the blueprint. It must be hidden.” The team began padding the walls for some kind of hidden panel or switch. “I disagree, by the way.”  
“With what?” Simmons asked.  
“With Director Coulson,” It seemed that Fitz was the only one not still getting used to that. “I think that, if the Runways are the kind of people May says, that they’re just the people he needs to be with.”  
“Fitz, we’re talking about the same man who threw us out of a plane.” Simmons sounded infuriated. “Our plane. He’s the reason you can’t walk, he’s the reason,”  
“I know that Simmons.”  
“We can have this discussion later.” Coulson declared as he found a hidden switch and flipped it. “For right now, let’s just focus on getting the power source.”  
As the elevator rose, Skye furrowed her brow and tilted her head.  
“Hey guys? Why d’you think they’re here?”


	14. Chapter 14

The room was spacious, if not a little crowded by equipment, weapons, and the chamber itself, as well as all of the various bits of insulated wiring and lead out of it. The chamber was probably ten feet by ten feet. Ward noted that that was a little bigger than the room she’d be sleeping in temporarily if they got her to come with them.  
The “her” in question was a young girl of Japanese descent. She was average height, but way below any weight that would be considered healthy. Her cheeks were hollow and even under her baggy tank top, they could all tell that her waist was incredibly thin. She was sitting on a single mattress in the middle of the chamber. Her other amenities included a pile of ratty clothing, thin sheets, a stack of well-worn magazine, and what was definitely a chamber pot in one corner. There was a set of doors in another corner than Ward guessed functioned like an air lock.  
She looked up at them as they approached, the seven of them. Her eyes widened and she scooted back across the mattress. Karolina looked at Old Lace, then back at the chamber.  
“It’s okay.” She said. “We’re not here to hurt you.”  
“Yeah right.” The girl replied. “Is that a fucking dinosaur?”  
“Yeah.” Gert smirked. Ward could tell she already liked their new acquaintance.  
“I’m Chase.” He pressed a hand to his chest. “These are my friends.”  
“Jen.” The girl replied, crossing her arms. “What’d you want?”  
“To give you a present.” Chase explained, picking up the box. “Plus, we brought you some snacks.” He nodded toward the air lock and his teammates emptied all of the granola and power bars they had out of their pockets and Ward unhooked his canteen.  
“What’s in the box?”  
“Some clothes.” He gestured towards the air lock. “May I?”  
“What am I gonna do to stop you?” Jen rolled her eyes.  
“Hey, you don’t want us to do somethin’, you just say so.” Chase shrugged. “This is Klara, by the way.” He nodded toward the younger girl. Klara waved.  
“Hi.” Jen shot. “Are you gonna put that in there or not?”  
“Only if you want me to.” Chase smiled.  
“Yeah, sure.”  
He walked slowly and opened the outer chamber. Jen rose slowly. Ward wasn’t sure if it was from trepidation or mal nourishment. He found himself subconsciously listing all of the recipes he’d read as “stick-to-your-ribs”. She waited near the inner door and grabbed at the bars and water once she could get to them. The door on her side was automatic. Probably so they had an excuse to keep her under-fed. It didn’t make any sense to Ward. Wouldn’t being unhealthy dampen her powers? Or was that the point? Was she too powerful for them?  
She took a few moments to scarf a few of them down. Her guests sat down around the front of the chamber and waited patiently.  
“So,” Jen finally said after a few moments, licking her fingers. She took the box out of the lock. “What’s this for?”  
“Open it.” Gert said with a nod. Old Lace was curled around her, head in Gert’s lap.  
“That’s weird.” Jen narrowed her eyes.  
“It’s a box. Opening it’s half the fun.” Gert smirked.  
“Haha.” Jen sat down unlatched the box slowly. Molly started bouncing where she sat. She looked up at Ward and squeezed his hand. He smiled back. “The fuck?” Jen pulled out Jen lifted what looked like a motorcycle helmet out of box. It was bright yellow, accented black. She set it down and lifted out a pair of heavy-duty boots in the same color scheme, a pair of gauntlets equipped with some sort of control panels. There was almost a two-piece jumpsuit and belt. “What is all this?”  
“It’s a hazmat suit. It’s rated for up to a few thousand rads.” Chase explained.  
“I’m sorry?”  
“Chase is a super genius.” Molly nodded. Gert stepped forward, digging into her jacket pocket.  
“That suit’s so you can leave this place, walk in public. There’s chameleon tech I can show you how to activate… you can program in outfits and stuff.” Chase sounded incredibly proud. “Me and my friends Victor and Sarah designed it. It’s new tech, so it might be a little buggy. The cammo, not the containment. You can come into any of our locations to get repairs, or we could come to you, wherever you choose to be, if you choose not join us.” He shrugged. “Once a Runway, always a Runaway.” There was pause. The Jen threw her helmet against the glass. It bounced off and hit the floor, both noises making Chase wince for the helmet’s crash rating.

“What do you want!?” Jen screamed. The team all looked taken aback. Karolina reached out subconsciously. “Seriously, who the hell are you people!? You’re acting like all of this is just you guys being fucking nice, like I’m your friend or something. Listen, I don’t have friends. I have handlers and technicians. So either tell me what you want from me or take your “gifts” and shove them up your asses.”  
There was a small pause.  
“We just want to help you.” Karolina pressed her hand to the glass.  
“I don’t even know what you are.” Jen folded her arms, taking a step back.  
“I’m a Majesdanian. My species originated in a solar system a few hundred light years from here. I can show you on a map if you like.” Jen stared in disbelief for a few moments. “We don’t lie to each other.”  
“Each other?”  
“Yeah, we’re the Runaways.” Kar gestured to the group. “We’re a family. We want you to be a part of it. If you want. We just think that you shouldn’t have to be locked up in here if you don’t want to.”  
“I don’t have a family.” Jen spat.  
“Klara and you have something important in common, y’know?” Kar gestured for the small girl to come forward. Klara scooted towards the glass.  
“What?” Jen narrowed her eyes.  
“I was once looked upon as an object.” She put her hand on the glass as Karolina stepped back. “Some people I thought had my best interests in mind sold me. Well, they married me off.”  
“You’re like, twelve.” Jen sounded disgusted.  
“Eleven and a half.” Klara smiled. “We know that that happened to you too.”  
“Yeah, my parents were scared of my powers, so they looked for ways to like, shut it off, but then,” She looked away. “Why’d you care anyway?”  
“But then HYDRA came along.” Klara continued for her. “They were probably masquerading as something else, maybe even something benevolent, but they were HYDRA and took you and put you in here so you could power this facility and others like it.”  
“Yeah, they move me around a lot, charging the batteries.” She put her chin in her hand.  
“That’s why it took so long for us to find you.” Chase said, pressing his hand to the glass. “We’re really sorry about that by the way. We’re really sorry we didn’t know they were starving you either… We would’ve brought some baked potatoes or something. Grant makes great baked potatoes.”  
“Oh yeah?” Jen raised an eyebrow at Ward. He smiled and nodded.  
“He can make you some if you want.” Klara explained.  
“You’re like, thirty, what’re you doing with these kids?”  
“He’s a Runaway.” Molly explained. Ward looked at her. Rule 10 did actually specify that anyone the group helped was a Runaway but… But we’d never felt like he deserved the title. Not until now. He smiled at Molly.  
“Grant’s great.” Klara affirmed. “He fixed my green house.”  
“So,” Jen looked down. “So why me?”  
“Well because we are you.” Chase shrugged. “We’re a bunch of kids who had bad things happen to us, who were in bad situations, and now we help others like us. We’re the Runaways.” Ward thought the speech sounded rehearsed, but no less genuine. “Look, I know you’re not used to trusting people… We’ve got this guy back at our HQ, he grew up in a lab. He never had anyone who was just there for him, y’know? It was all a bunch of scientists in lab coats who just cared about whether or not their experiment would be a success. We were the first people who actually wanted to help him, and he didn’t want to believe it at first, but now he’s one of my best friends. His name’s Ken.”  
“Why isn’t he here?” Jen asked curiously.  
“He doesn’t really like places like this.” Molly explained. “Gives him the heebies. Nobody ever has to go where they don’t want to go.” Jen nodded.  
“I swore off of people at one point.” Gert said. Old Lace sat up suddenly and looked behind her. “I still have issues with anyone over twenty, but for a while I thought I didn’t need anyone other than Old Lace, and that I didn’t want them either, friends, family. But these idiots changed that.” Old Lace made a few clicking noise. “Trust me, I am the least trusting person I know. I hate everyone. And I would put my life in the hands of each and every one of these jokers.” She pointed to her teammates in turn. “We just want to help. No tricks, no take backs. I think they want you to come with them too.”  
“Who?” Jen tilted her head. The Runaways were rising slowly.  
“The jackasses with the badges.”


	15. Chapter 15

The noise was actually rather unsettling. Whether that was because of the tone or pitch of the cry itself, or the knowledge that it was coming from a creature no human had ever heard before, was maybe never meant to hear, Simmons wasn’t sure.  
“That is so cool.” Fitz said quietly.   
“Fitz.” Simmons hissed, gun raised. They all had their weapons up. The dinosaur stalked toward them, hissing and screaming, baring its sharp teeth.  
“Hi again.” Coulson half-smiled.  
“Your plan was to just blow in here and wreck other people’s shit, wasn’t it?” Chase sighed.  
“Listen, kid, we just want the power source.” May said flippantly.   
“That’s it.” Molly lifted her bat. Old Lace made a move toward Coulson, he trained his gun on her.   
“Listen, comb over, you shoot my dinosaur and I will stab you in the dick!” Gert was now brandishing a scary-looking knife, its blade engraved with what anyone close enough could make out as “Rule #1”. Try not to die. Ward remembered. He put his hand on his gun. It wasn’t a threat so much as a precaution. He wasn’t even sure if he could use it. Not against them.  
“It’s not a comb over.” Coulson almost sounded hurt. He didn’t put his gun down.  
“What the actual fuck?” Jen slowly walked backward away from the front of the chamber, not that there was anywhere she could hide.  
“Radiation shielding is bullet proof, Jen.” Chase said over his shoulder. He raised one gloved hand and the air around it suddenly burst into flames. “These guys are Agents of SHIELD. You know SHIELD, right?”  
“Aren’t they supposed to be the good guys?” There was a small clicking noise just then.   
“Jen, calm down.” Klara reached into the inside pocket of her jacket. “We don’t want you lover-loading.”  
“Over-loading what?” Skye asked. She looked around the room, like really looked. All of the power conduits were converging on that glass box in the middle of the room… The glass box with the girl in it. Had that blond kid said radiation shielding?  
The younger girl in white tossed something at them.  
“You’ve left me no choice.”   
The vines were at least thornless.


	16. Chapter 16

Fitz drummed his fingers on his desk angrily. He would have to ask Skye to teach him more about software. He would have to look into armoring his chair or mounting a gun on it; maybe that would convince Coulson to let him into the field. He would have to make his idiot family start wearing cameras! This wasn't was not going to work, them gallivanting off on some dangerous mission without him! He was their tech! What if they needed to reprogram a robot? What if HYDRA had attack monkeys?! What if they were ambushed by a robot HYDRA attack monkey?! They would need him!  
He grunted angrily, slamming his fist into the table. This was not okay! He was used to the chair by now; he could be out there with them! He should be! The last thing the youngest girl, Roses, had said...  
You leave me no choice.  
No choice but to what? And now no one was saying anything.  
"What's going on?" He repeated for nth time, sounding sharper than he'd meant. "Report!" A moment's more.  
"Chloropathy." Simmons' voice was small and shrill, like it got when she was too excited. "Actual, physical evidence of chloropathy, Fitz." Chloropathy? The ability to control plants and vegetation with one's mind? If Fitz could have sat up straighter he would have.  
"Jemma? Jemma what--"  
"Fits, it's amazing!" She shrieked. "In seconds, fully grown... What are these? Ivy! It's ivy! Overgrown ivy!" Fitz smile. Simmons sounded so much like Simmons. She hadn't in such a long time. All it took to get his love back to herself was a dinosaur and a chloropath. Who knew?  
"One of the kids," May sounded annoyed. "She threw seeds at us, must be some kind of," She grunted as if struggling. "Of fast-growing vine." That possibility wasn't nearly as exciting as a chloropath. SHIELD had hypothesized their existence (why would superhuman abilities be limited to pyrokinesis and enhanced strength? Why would they be limited at all?) but no one had ever actually contacted one!  
"They're going to hold you there until we can get to safety." He heard Roses explain. He didn't like the idea of a bunch of kids not considering themselves safe because they were around his team.  
"Wait a minute!" Coulson said. "Just wait, we just want to..." He trailed off.  
"To what?!" Talkback demanded, sounding on edge. "You fuckers storm in here, ruin a perfectly good stealth operation, stealth! Do you know the word!?"  
"T." Fitz heard Bruiser say, almost too soft for the com to pick up.  
"I'm fine." Talkback replied. "See look? I'm fine. No more fire even." Fire? What fire? Oh Leopold Fitz's kingdom for body cams!  
"I think we all got off on the wrong foot." Lucy, had it been? The alien who May'd rescued. "So let's try this again. Hi, I'm Lucy in the Sky, yes I am an alien being from another planet. I came here with Runaways because we want to help this young lady." Young lady. Fitz was still confused about that. The team was in the chamber where the power source was being held, but Skye had sounded so confused earlier... The power source... Was it a person? How could it be a person?  
"Hi." The girl who'd screamed before. "Um, I'm Jen." She sounded annoyed, almost angry. "You gave a different name before."  
"We use codenames." Lucy explained. "As a general policy, we use them when speaking in front of or with non Runaways. We used our real names with you earlier because we trust you and are hoping that you will join us."  
"Why are you in that thing?" Skye asked. A pause. "Um, I'm Skye, I'm an Agent of SHIELD and we were here the power source."  
"But that doesn't seem like it's going to happen anymore." Coulson said in that fatherly voice he used to calm people down. "Hi, Phil Coulson, also an agent of SHIELD. How are you?"  
"This chamber keeps the radiation I'm always leaking from hurting anyone." Jen said matter of factly. "It's also, y'know, my prison cell."  
"Jemma Simmons, agent of SHIELD." Simmons said primly. "So you are the power source? My partner, Fitz, and I thought that it might be organic in nature but... HYDRA kept you here?"  
"And other places like this." Jen explained. Fitz felt something in his gut twist.  
"Well we can get you out of here." Skye said.  
"Yeah, right." Jen scoffed. "I'm definitely going with the losers who pointed runs at a bunch of teenagers and their pet reptile." Fitz felt himself smile. Someone who'd been imprisoned for as long as she thought she had making a decision like that... He was oddly proud.  
"Fuck off." She said and he almost laughed.  
"Okay." Talkback said. "Hi, Talkback, Runaway, team leader. These are called Fistigons, they have propellant in them, so, fire." Ah, now Fitz was less confused. Those actually sounded really cool.  
"Someone ask him how those work."  
"Fitz." Simmons scolded.  
"What? Like you don't want to know."  
Talkback continued:  
"So, just so everyone is clear: We have gifted Jen with a special suit that will allow to interact with the world however she pleases without risk of radiation leakage or detection by... Anyone." Whoa.  
"Ask him how that works!"  
"Fitz, please." Simmons said again.  
"And you are going to get to keep that, even if you don't choose to become one of us. Okay?"  
"Yeah, I got it."  
"We're going to let you out of there either way." Bruiser's voice. "Oh, right! Bruiser. Runaway. Super strength. I have a bat." Fitz wondered if SHIELD had ever encountered superhumans this young.  
"Okay, I have a question." Skye said. And then, Fitz imagined, she pointed to Ward. "What's he doing with you guys."  
"I'll interpret." Bruiser sounded exasperated. Fitz understood. Hadn't they covered this? Ward was a recovering asshat. And apparently, now a mute. Bruiser spoke:  
"Hello, my name is Cook. I'm a current Runaway, former agent of SHIELD with this team and former spy for HYDRA. I have no alien or superhuman abilities, but I do carry two guns."  
"You're HYDRA?" Jen asked, anger nipping at her tone. Fits imagined Ward nodded before he began signing again.  
"I was recruited to join HYDRA when I was fifteen. I am no longer... Is that the sign for affiliated? Affiliated with them."  
"He's also a traitor." Skye snapped.  
"That is true."  
"Are you sorry?" Jen asked.  
"What?" Skye scoffed.  
"Well I would hope so!" Simmons shrieked.  
"Sorry doesn't have anything to do with it," Coulson said angrily. And then then team was talking over each other and Fitz sighed. More than one person mentioned his paralysis. He groaned.  
Then Bruiser started screaming.


	17. Chapter 17

Bruiser screamed for about twenty seconds. It was a really good, well-supported yell. Everyone stared at her. Everyone stared at her silently. She stopped and looked around. Simmons began a sentence.  
"Ahhhhhhh!" Bruiser screamed.  
"What," Jen started.  
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!"  
"I think we–" Coulson attempted.  
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" When there was finally a decent, silent pause, Bruiser looked around again and said, at her normal, pleasant volume:  
"Good."  
"Hi." Arsenic put a hand in the air. "My name is Arsenic, this is Old Lace." She stroked the agitated dinosaur's back. The raptor purred. "We have a telepathic connection and can hear each other’s thoughts. Right now she is thinking that she hopes I will let her eat you for being very bad scale-less humans. Her words, not mine." The lilac -haired teen smirked. "That isn't to say I don't agree."  
"Arsenic." Bruiser warned.  
"Yeah, yeah I know." She sighed. "Anyway, let's take a look at the situation, shall we? You are one of the last remaining pockets of an organization that was trying its darndest to be a global security agency, who came in here with minimal knowledge of what you thought was some Nazi Magoffin that you, very understandably wanted to neutralize. Am I close?"  
The team nodded in agreement.  
"Yeah, that's pretty much it." Trip nodded. The Runaways and Jen stared at him for a beat. "Oh, um, Antoine Triplet, agent of SHIELD. I also have guns."  
"Okay," Arsenic nodded. "We are a group of kids who work tirelessly every day to undo the fuckups of grownups worldwide, and we were not infiltrated by Nazis at our inception. We knew exactly what they were getting into upon entering this facility, exactly who we were looking for, and exactly what means we would have to use to free her. Considering those things, and also the hungry dinosaur." Old Lace growled. "I think, at least where it concerns Cookie, we win." She crossed her arms.  
"But you don't understand!" Skye sighed. The whole of the Runaways, except, Cook, groaned loudly. He looked around at them, at once incredibly happy and utterly confused at their defense of him. After all these months, he still hasn't quite gotten it into his head that these people wanted him, that they cared about him, and they were going to protect him.  
"You didn't answer me." Jen pointed out. He turned to her. She had asked something hadn't she? Was he sorry? He took a deep breath and looked over at Bruiser. She nodded.  
"Everybody hush!" She raised her hands high in the air. "Jen asked Cookie a question!" He paused a moment, took another breath. "I think that there are good people and bad people in this world. I think there are people help, and people who hurt. And I think that I'm one of the ones who hurt--- Cookie! That is not,"  
"Bruise, interpret, don't comment." Lucy said, making calming motions with her hands. "Even if that is a big fat lie, Cook."  
Cookie sighed again.  
"I'm not a good person, I haven't been a good person in a long time, I probably never was. And I let HYDRA, I let a man named John Garret, turn me into something I didn't want to be, I became a monster. I was manipulative, and murderous. And when I finally found people," His fingers fumbled. He looked over at the team. His team. He pressed his fist to his chest and made a circular motion. "Sorry."  
"It's okay, Cookie, take your time." Bruiser encouraged. Roses patted him on the shoulder.  
"When I finally found people who treated me like something other than a thing: A thing to torture, a thing to use, a thing to kill, when I finally found those people, I hurt them. I hurt the first family I ever had, and I betrayed them. I went back to the people who broke me. I chose my abuser over my loved ones. That was the worst mistake of my life." He'd given up trying to stop the tears from coming. Old Lace was making clicking sounds, and after a few moments of her trotting a few steps toward Cook and then a few steps back, Arsenic moved over him so she could put a hand on his shoulder and Ol' could nuzzle up against his hip.  
"I didn't deserve a second chance," Cook continued. "But I got one anyway. I got a second family, a second chance to.... To be. I got a second chance to be. And I'm using that chance to do good, to be good, to try and become a good person. I,"  
"Okay." Jen said abruptly.  
"What?" Cookie raised.  
"Okay." Jen shrugged. "Gimme a minute to get into this thing in coming with you guys."  
"That's it?" Skye asked.  
"Yeah, I mean, definitely not going with you goons, and I can't go anyplace else… I just wanted to make sure this guy wasn’t…” The Runaways were all nodding understandingly.  
“You think there are more kids like me?" She asked Talkback. He'd moved over to Cookie too, all of the Runaways were sort of clumped around him, hugging and touching and getting nuzzles from a concerned raptor.  
"Unfortunately." Talkback nodded.  
"And I'll get to help them and stuff if I come with you?"  
"Yeah."  
"And I get to eat as much as I want?"  
"Yeah." The group nodded.  
"Cookie can make you whatever you need." Roses said. He nodded enthusiastically.  
"Okay." She shrugged again. "I just need a minute." She picked up the suit.  
"It zips on the side." Talkback explained.  
"Yeah, I see it."


	18. Chapter 18

It was easy enough to untangle the team from Roses’ vine wall, and then seal up the holes to separate them from the Runaways.  
“We have things to discuss.” Talkback explained  
“Yeah, business.” Molly made shooing motions as the last of the holes closed. The SHIELD team all looked at each other, attempting to process how bizarre their lives had become.   
"I think we should respect Jen's decision you guys." Fitz finally broke the silence, speaking adamantly.  
"I agree." Skye nodded. "But we can't let Ward go with them. He's dangerous." Fitz bit his tongue. He'd argue if she didn't have such a good point. He felt like he'd been saying that to himself a lot lately. He sighed.   
"There's no way you'll ever be able to convince the Runaways of that." He sad.  
"Fitz is right." May agreed. "They're fiercely protective of their own."  
"But he isn't their own." Skye groaned, rubbing her face. "Oh my gosh, I thought we were done with him."  
"We could be." Fitz hadn't meant to say that out loud. Curse coms.   
"What?" Skye asked.  
"Leo's got a point." Trip said. He'd been calling him that more and more lately.   
"What?" Skye snapped. Trip took a half step back. Fitz was only shielded from her wrath by distance.   
"We're only saying," Fitz tried. "That Ward's been alive this whole time. It's been almost a year, Skye, and nothing happened. Nothing bad enough to show up on our radar, or that of any other team, right?"  
"Right." Skye mumbled.   
"So, if the only thing that's changed now is that we know about him, then what going to happen?"  
"It's not like he hasn't been around these guys for all this time." Trip pointed out. "If he was planning on scalping them for HYDRA, he probably would've done it already."   
"Oh my gosh." Skye rubbed her temples in disbelief. "You guys believe him."  
"What?" Fitz asked. Trip took a deep breath.  
"You believe that pathetic sob story of his, about good people and bad people." She said mockingly, then laughed. "You two fell for it! Ward's a monster, he's a fucking Nazi, he hasn't changed. He's evil."   
"Skye..." Fitz sighed.  
"No one else believes him." She gestured to the group. "Right?" Silence. "Guys. No."  
"Second chances aren't given." May said curtly. "They're earned."  
"He betrayed this team." Coulson nodded. "He wormed his way in and gained our trust and made us think that he was one of us, that he was fighting for our cause." He shook his head. "That kind of betrayal doesn't wipe away easily."  
"Or at all." Skye scoffed. There was a pause. Simmons stood there, fists clenched, jaw locked.   
"Simmons?" Fitz said gently.  
"He tried to kill us, Fitz." She said finally. "He wanted us dead. He hurt you... He's the reason you're,"   
"I am not broken." He said, the anger in his tone surprising even him. But he didn't stop it. "You all have been puttering around me for the past few months like I'm a precious vase someone knocked off a shelf. I'm not some antique Ward threw across a room, I'm..." He took a deep breath. "I'm not broken." He rolled his shoulders, the space between them tense. "I'm not broken. I'm just different. A different Fitz." A pause. "I'm sorry."  
"It's okay," Trip and Simmons said at the same time, her calling him Fitz and him calling him Leo. It was odd to say, but it felt good when they spoke to him at the same time.   
"It still stands." Coulson said. "Ward betrayed us, and he put you in that chair."   
"And he's a misogynistic dickbag." Skye added.  
"And that." Coulson nodded. “So it’s decided then?”   
Fitz sat back and sighed. Trip made a face but didn’t question. It just didn’t seem like the best use of their time.


	19. Chapter 19

The SHIELD team was talking amongst themselves in muffled tones. Cook stared at the wall of vines. His brow was furrowed, fists clenching and unclenching. He rolled his shoulders. It had been weeks since his final appointment with Julie, and his back was healed but… But now the ink almost burned. He felt ashamed of it, just as ashamed as he had of the very idea of marking himself with their names…  
“Cookie.” Bruiser grabbed his hand. He looked down at her and she nodded toward the chamber.  
Jen was standing in the corner farthest away from door and airlock. Lucy in The Sky rose into the air a few feet and stretched her arms out in front of her. Thin tendrils of rainbow-colored light reached out from her form and slipped into the tiny spaces between the door and the wall. Said door made a good effort at not being ripped from its hinges, but popped off of them at the second sharp tug.  
Jen walked slowly to the entrance and hesitated a moment before stepping out. She looked around at all of them, a lump forming in her throat.  
“There’s a Geiger counter in your suit.” Talkback explained. “The display should be right around here.” He gestured toward the left side of his face.  
“Yeah, I see it. The readings haven't gone up or anything since I left the chamber.”  
“Good. You’re gonna need to keep an eye on that meter, make sure you don’t overload yourself.”  
“’S gonna be so annoying having that there in the corner of my vision all the time.” Jen groaned. The group laughed.  
“You’ll get used to it.” Arsenic shrugged.  
“Try out the holo-projection thing.” Bruiser bounced up and down.  
“What?” Jen said, then remembered what Talkback had said. “Oh yeah.” She raised her left hand, the one with the larger gauntlet on it. There was a series of buttons on her wrist, and a small display screen.  
“You can download the images of any outfits you’d like onto the projector.” Talkback explained.  
“I picked out two or three that you might like to test it out.” Lucy said, grin splitting her face. “Hairstyles too.”  
“Means you can walk around with bedhead all the time.” Bruiser said. “And no one will know.”  
“Means I can walk around at all.” Jens said quietly, trying not to cry. Talkback walked her through operating the projector and she selected a very Lucy in The Sky outfit: a purple peasant top, white jeans and a pair of purple and white converse. Her hair was up in two pigtails.  
“How do I look?” She asked, striking an awkward pose.  
“Like you’re ready to get out of here.” Roses smiled.  
Old Lace made a series of happy clicking noises and wagged her tail.  
“No.” Arsenic petted her between her eyes. “No tackling the new girl. Let her get her bearings.”  
“Tackling?” Jen asked warily.  
“That’s how Old Lace shows affection.” Bruiser explained. “Don’t worry, she always listens to Arsenic.”  
“Can I ask what’s up with the goofy codenames?” Jen crossed her arms.  
“Codenames are cool.” Talkback almost sounded offended.  
“We use them to protect our identities.” Roses explained. “You don’t have to pick one if you don’t want to.”  
“No, I,” Jen looked down at her hands. “No, it’s just… I’ve never really been part of a club before.” She shrugged. “I don’t know…” Her voice shook. She was not going to cry, dammit. Or maybe she was. Would it matter in her helmet? Would the visor fog up?  
“Hey.” Roses took her hand. “You’re okay.” There was small pause. Everything was quiet save for a muffled yelling from the other side of the vines. SHIELD was arguing about something.  
Roses stood on her tip toes and wrapped her arms around Jen’s neck. She didn’t know what to do at first. When was the last time she’d gotten a hug? When was the last time anyone had touched her who wasn’t trying to get her to stand in a different part containment chamber?  
She slowly snaked her arms around the smaller girl. The others joined the hug a moment later. They held each other for what felt like a long time. Jen leaned into them. How long had it been? Had she felt this starved for contact before? Had didn’t want to let go.  
“Hey, Roses, can you take down the wall?” Talkback asked, his forehead pressed into the crook of Lucy’s neck.  
“Yeah sure.” Roses said, and the vines receded. The SHIELD team all turned to look at them at the same time. Cook looked back at them, tears threatening behind his eyes, his back physically hurting. Then he saw the icers.


	20. Chapter 20

“Alright then,” Lucy smiled at the agents. “Now that we’ve settled everything—why are you holding guns?” Her shoulders drooped. “We were past this. It was over there.” She pointed behind her and then gestured to the floor in front of her. “And we were over here.” Arsenic sighed and folded her arms, hip cocking to one side.  
“Leave it to a bunch of grown-ups to go back on their word even when what they promised actually made things better for a change.” She rolled her eyes. Old Lace growled, stalking forward with her head lowered.   
"We can't let you take Ward." Coulson slowly leveling his gun at Old Lace. "We're taking him with us."  
“You shoot my dinosaur, I will stab. You. In. the. Dick.” Arsenic repeated.  
"Why!?" Talkback threw his arms in the air. "Why do you have to do that?! A couple hours ago you thought he was dead and everything was fucking fine! Now you find out he's alive and all of sudden nothing is okay?! Whhhy?!" He scratched his scalp, fingers digging in dangerously deep. "Adults make no gods-damned sense."  
"He's an adult too, y'know?" Skye said indignantly. "He's not some abused kid who didn't have a choice. He was a grown man when he decided to side with HYDRA, okay? I don’t know what he told you that convinced you—"  
"Look at my face!" Talkback roared. "Look at my fucking face and try and see if I care or not!" And one Fistigon lit up brilliantly, the fire reaching forward as if it was just as angry as its wielder.  
"Talkback." Lucy put an arm out toward him. "It's okay."  
"It's not okay." Talkback hissed through his teeth. "We are leaving here and we are doing it as a group."  
Cook waved his arm in the air, the ASL equivalent of "Guys, stop! Wait a minute!" Most eyes turned toward him. May was watching Talkback’s fiery hand. How much fuel could those things possibly be storing? What was the risk of trying to kick it off his wrist?  
"I'll go with them." Cook signed.   
"You most certainly will not!" The light coming off of Lucy flared brightly for a moment.   
"Not an option, Cook." Arsenic shook her head.  
"Why not?" Cook shrugged. "If it means you guys getting out of here safe and Jen making it to the Hostile, then I'm willing to—"  
"This self-sacrificing steak you've got going is your worst quality, you know that?" Bruiser tapped his thigh with her bat.   
"And here I thought it was all the traitorous Nazism." Skye shrugged one shoulder.   
"I think we all just need to calm down." Lucy gestured calmingly. "Talkback, please."   
"Not until they put the guns down." The blond narrowed his eyes, gestured with his flaming hand.  
"Okay." Lucy nodded, then turned to the SHIELD agents. "If you guys could please just lower your weapons, we can all sit down and discuss this calmly."  
"There is nothing to discuss!" Talkback took a step forward. "They aren't taking Cook."  
"Well if course not, but,"  
"He's HYDRA!" Skye cried. "They're the bad guys!"  
"So are you!" Jen stomped a foot. "You're standing there pretending to be the high and mighty bringers of light and justice, but you're pointing guns at kids and threatening to lock up a guy who's trying to start over and make amends for the messed up shit he did! It’s like that doesn’t even matter! He risks his life coming here to save his friends, to help save you and… and… What the fuck is wrong with you people?!" She threw her hands up. "You think you're the good guys in this situation?! You think you're the heroes gloriously riding in to save the day!? The only reason you're here is because you knew HYDRA had an asset you wanted! A thing! You're here for a thing, but that thing thinks you’re a bunch of douchebags! So leave!"   
"Jen," Trip lowered his gun, holstered it, reached out calmly. "We didn't know the energy source… you were a person."  
"Well they did." She nodded toward Arsenic and Roses. "And as far as I'm concerned, that puts them a little higher on the ladder of morality than you. Even him." She pointed to Cook. A corner if his lips curved like it was too tired to manage a smile. "And as far as I can see, you're outgunned." Old Lace clicked in agreement. "So why don't you do the smart thing and back the hell off?”  
"She's right." Fitz said calmly over the SHIELD coms. "She's right and you know she's right, alright? Why can't any of you see that?" Or did they see it and just not care? There had been a time, he guessed, right after he woke up, where he would've been on their side on this... There were a few weeks where he was just as angry and just as... Well, irrational. But Ward was gone then. He was dead and there was nothing and no one him to be angry at. He didn't have time to seethe over nothing. He had to get better. But now… Not Ward was alive. He could be mad. He could definitely be mad now. He could support whole heartedly his family's effort to lock their black sheep in a tiny, dark hole for the rest of his days. Or shoot him dead. He could do that. He had the reason, he had the excuse. He had the right.  
But the fire just wasn’t there. He wasn’t angry at Ward anymore. He wasn’t angry at anyone… He was a bit annoyed at his family for hovering the way they did, but that was only happening because they loved him. And Ward… Well, if those kids were right, and he trusted that they were, he was trying to put some good into the world to make up for all the bad he’d pumped into it. And sure, maybe it would never be enough, but he was trying. That had to count for something, right?   
“We should just let him go.” He said, but if the team had heard him they were ignoring him now, guns being holstered, and May pulling out a pair of handcuffs.  
Ward walked toward her calmly, hands in the air. Bruiser grabbed onto his pant leg.   
“No.” She said, tugging on him. He looked at her and signed slowly.   
“It’s alright, Molly. I’ll be fine. I promise.” He smiled. She nodded and let go of him as May pulled his arm.   
“If you cuff him he won’t be able to communicate.” Bruiser protested.  
“I’m not interested in anything he has to say.” May said, pulling one of his guns from its holster. Simmons puttered up to take it and the others. She marveled at them each for a moment before sliding them into her backpack. She’d never seen technology like them before, but they still looked like hers and Fitz’s handiwork.  
Fire suddenly sparked at May and Simmons’ feet where Chase had thrown it. Ward looked at him, upset but not afraid. The blonde shrugged one shoulder.  
“Oops.” He said, glancing around at all the guns that were pointed at him now. All but Skye. She approached him slowly, hands up in a gesture of nonaggression that was promptly ignored by Chase. His fistigon was unlit, but he met her with an angry glare.  
“Hey.” She said. “Listen, I know what you’re going through.”  
“A bunch of know-it-alls with guns took your friend away right as he was beginning to find a way too?” He raised an eyebrow.   
“Seems unlikely.” Arsenic was petting Old Lace’s head as she bounced on her hackles, growling and clicking as Ward was led toward the SHIELD team. “Me too girl.” She said quietly. “It’s okay though. We’ll get him back.”   
“You guys have to listen to me.” Skye said. “This guy, you’re calling him Cook. His real name is Grant Ward. He was,”  
“You’re Skye.” Chase said abruptly. Skye nodded. “Yeah, dude, I get it, okay? I get why you don’t trust him, alright? I fucking get it. He wormed his way into the first family you ever had, made you care for him, and then he betrayed you.” He was speaking slowly, his shoulders slumping. He was so tired. Bruiser came over and stood next to him, leaning against his side. “So I get it. You don’t like the guy. But you need to get something, okay?” He curled one metal-covered finger toward himself slowly, beckoning her close.   
She glanced back at Coulson, now helping May restrain Ward, to give a small nod in attempt to calm the worry showing on his face. She turned back to Chase and stepped forward, then leaned toward him until his face was near her ear, her hand twitching toward her sidearm.  
“I don’t care!” Chase bellowed, making Skye jump back about three feet. She looked at him, angry and annoyed. He shrugged again.   
“We give not one fuck, lady.” Arsenic spat. Bruiser stuck her tongue out at her. Skye shook her head and turned back to her team.   
And suddenly there were two families standing on either side of that room having one of the worst custody disputes ever. The Runaways had dealt with divorces gone wrong before. Bruiser remembered a few times where the party winning the dispute was the party that didn’t even like kid. None of them had ended well.


	21. Chapter 21

"I know what you're thinking Skye." Colson said once the two of them were alone on the bus, Skype antsy and beginning to burst at the seams. Months of digging HYDRA agents out of the holes they crawled into she could handle. Her father figure having some sort of inhuman map in his head she could handle. Her mentor having some kind of existential crisis and nearly leaving the team she could handle. Watching Fitz struggle to recover and even Grant Ward rising from the dead she could handle. Water off a well-trained duck's back. A duck who was just getting back into the swing of things, who was just settling back into a comfortable place with her family. A duck who looked like she was about to fly the coupe. Or the lake. Really it was her jumping off the bus and going after those kids Colson was worried about.  
"I used to be those kids, Phil!" She was pacing a short path in front of his desk as Coulson stood near the door watching with a pained expression. "I was there, fighting for the wrong cause, partnering up with the wrong people. We still don't know how far HYDRA had its ross Nazi tentacles. The tech they had," And his hands were suddenly on her shoulders, squeezing gently. "We have to do something Coulson. They're just kids."   
There was a knock at the door and May was coming in before either of them reacted.   
"Ward's been secured. I've got Trip guarding the door but I doubt he'll be attempting anything." She looked between Skye and Coulson, gagging the state of the atmosphere in the room before continuing, "What're we doing with him?"  
"Throw him in the hole with the others." Coulson said plainly.   
"And the Runaways?" May tilted her head the way she did when already knew the answer to a question and was only asking because of protocol. Skye smiled. May would agree with her.  
"Well you said you'd heard of them." Coulson walked around to sit at his desk, gesturing for May and Skye to sit as well, the three of them shifting into the straight backs and careful grammar that came with a Meeting with the Director. The change had become something like natural for most of the team but Skye still felt out of place slipping into the trappings of pomp and protocol.   
"I've heard the stories." May said as they settled. "Ghost stories, the younger cadets and new graduates would talk about Gifted teenagers who could take down entire SHIELD squadrons, strike teams who underestimated them because of their ages got relieved of O-84's, convoys escorting living assets never completed their missions. Most of the reports varied about their movements and numbers, none of the abilities were consistent. The one thing they all had in common was that no one ever died."  
"And the teams who were supposedly in contact with the Runaways? They never corroborated?" Coulson asked, brow furrowed.  
"A few isolated cases if enemy agents who looked younger, or a team that happened to include a young Gifted. Nothing substantial. Until today."   
"How long has this been going on?" Skye asked, on the edge of horrified.   
"As far as I can tell, the kids we saw today were the second generation. I can have Fitz dig through the records, see if he can find more."   
"Good idea." Coulson nodded.  
"I hope Fitz is okay." Skye ran her fingers through her hair. "The guy who paralyzed him is back and now we're gonna ask him to research siting of the child army who apparently resurrected him."  
"That's something else we need to look into." Coulson said sternly. He looked May. "I want to know how Ward's back. See what else knows about these kids too. Who's in charge of them?"  
"Who would send a bunch of kids to a HYDRA base?" Skye asked quietly.  
“We’re gonna find out.” May put a hand on Skye’s shoulder. “I’ll see to it.”


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sorry i've been gone for so long

“This is fine.” Bruiser said mostly to herself as they all climbed into the van.   
“Bruise, how in the fuck is any of this fine?” Talkback sounded exhausted. He leaned back in the passenger seat and closed his eyes. He pinched the bridge of his nose, eyes squeezed shut.  
“We’re going to get him, right?” Jen asked, looking around at the new friends she was still wary of. “Like, you guys don’t just leave people behind, right?”  
“That’s why it’s fine.” Bruiser said. “We’re going to go get him.” She punched her palm. Arsenic leaned forward over the back seats from where she sat with Old Lace.  
“SHIELD’s like twelve guys and a macbook pro right now. We’ve lifted people from their maximum-security semi-trucks before.”  
“That’s why it’s fine.” Bruiser repeated.   
“We need to re-supply.” Lucy in The Sky was driving a little too fast. “We’ll swing back by the Hostile, eat and grab some infiltration gear, then go get him. Chase.”  
“Hm.” Talkback grunted.  
“I need you to pinpoint exactly where the new SHIELD headquarters is. Can you do that?”  
“Absolutely.” He said tiredly.   
“Can I come?” Jen asked.  
“It’ll be dangerous.” Lucy said, glancing in the rearview mirror.  
“Like I give a shit.” Jen crossed her arms. “Dude put his neck on the line for me. I’m not gonna let him end up in some box like I was.”   
“I like you.” Arsenic said wryly. Jen smirked.  
“Okay.” Lucy nodded. “Bruiser, contact Sister Grimm and tell her we’ll need the chopper again. Once Chase has the specs for the base we can formulate a proper plan.   
“This is fine.” Bruiser said, mostly to herself.


	23. Chapter 23

They put Ward in a concrete jail cell. It was a box, five solid walls and a shock field for a “door”. There was a bed and nothing else. They took his guns, his holsters, his phone, everything. They took his jacket. Ward almost panicked when they took his jacket. They took his jacket, practically ripped it off his shoulders. They’d taken his jacket. His breath was shaky when they took his jacket. He’d almost cried. He feared for it. Was it ripped? Would it be okay? What would they do with it? Couldn’t he keep it? No. They took his clothes. Gave him a set of grey scrubs. No shoes. Couldn’t he just keep his jacket, with its dinosaur patches and lovingly-sinched elbows? Couldn't he keep his jacket? No. He was too dangerous. He didn’t deserve it anyway.  
Ward sat on the floor, leaned against one wall. He stared at the floor. He resigned himself to his fate. He tried not to panic. He thought about what it might be like if Skye or Coulson or May… or Fitz came to see him. Came to interrogate him. He’d need an interpreter. Or maybe they’d give him a tablet.  
It wouldn’t matter. He wasn’t giving up the Hostile. Wasn’t telling them anything about the Runaways. He’d failed his family once. He wasn’t about to do it again. He didn’t go through six months of hell and healing and hugs just to mess up again the way he already had. He didn’t work through his nightmares and his issues and flinching at every act of kindness just to betray and destroy again.  
Not again.   
Not again.   
Not again.  
Not ever again. He would spend his entire life in this box, silent, without signing. He would face interrogation after interrogation without giving them one detail. Would they torture him?   
They could torture him if they wanted to.   
They had every right to hurt him but they would not get to the Runaways. Even if they had good intentions, he wasn’t letting anyone near those kids.  
The door opened and shut. There was a high-pitched noise. A red light began flashing in one corner of the room where the box was kept. Where the box had been built into. Ward kept staring at the floor. He didn’t hear footsteps. He kept staring.  
“Ward.” The voice was shaky, but he recognized it instantly. He didn’t look up. “Ward. Hi.” The voice said again, with a kind of gentility Ward did not deserve. “Um, there’s just a few things I wanted to say to you.” The voice said and Ward heard a piece of paper crumpling and unfolding. “I wrote them down. It’s easier for me to organize my thought on paper these days. I used to be able to think of this kind of thing on the fly, keep it all in my head… but…”  
But I hurt you. Ward thought.  
“But, I was without oxygen for a long time. I have damage to my frontal lobe, my parietal lobe, and my temporal lobe. I can’t really use my left hand, but I’m getting better. I lost the use of my legs… are you crying?”  
Ward look up. There were indeed tears running down his cheeks, a little puddle of salt water on the floor between his feet. Fitz was sitting directly in front of him. In a wheel chair. He had a wrinkled piece of paper in his right hand, left hand curled against his chest. He still looked like Fitz. He was still Fitz. Ward coughed.  
“I didn’t mean to…” Fitz took a deep breath. “I didn’t mean to make you cry or anything… I just have some stuff I really need to say.” He started reading again, eyes focused on his paper. Ward kept staring at him, unblinking, tears raining down his face. “You being dead gave me the space I needed to start to come to terms with my injury. It’s only been six months, but I feel like I’m used to the chair now, like I can do things on my own now. That’s a real accomplishment for me. Now that you’re not dead, well,” He looked back up again. His face fell and Ward hastily wiped his face. He signed “sorry”, moving his fist in a circular motion against his chest.  
“Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.”  
“I’m not mad at you.” Fitz’s voice shook. His lip trembled like he had to force his mouth to work properly. “I’m really not. I was at first, but you died. It went away. Maybe it should have come back.” He glanced at the door. “It came back for Skye. The anger, I mean. The anger came back…” He looked at his paper again. “Now that you’re not dead, I feel like I can forgive you.”  
No, no, no. Grant Ward doesn’t get forgiveness.  
“Not for the betrayal.” Oh. “I don’t think I’ll ever forgive you for hurting us the way you did, for hurting SHIELD… But I forgive you for what you did to me.” He looked up again. Ward was still staring. “I saved Simmons, y’know? I saved her.” Ward nodded. Good. Good. Good. “Did you know that we were going to survive?"  
There was a long pause. Ward shook his head.  
“Did you think we were going to die?”  
Ward shook his head. Fitz started reading again.  
“And I feel like you deserve to know that there’s one person on this team who doesn’t hate you, or wants you dead. I’m sure you know by now how the others feel. I think they’re justified in their hatred of you.” Ward agreed. “But I also know that I don’t feel the same way.” He looked up again. Ward nodded. He signed thank you. He mouthed it too, trying to get Fitz to understand. Fitz only nodded back and slid the paper back into his sweater pocket. He struggled a little to turn his wheelchair to get himself back up the ramp to the door.  
Ward stood on instinct. He walked forward, getting all the way to the shock field with his hand outstretched before he was stopped. Electricity zapped his fingertips and he recoiled. Fitz looked up at him.  
“What?” He said. “Did you want to say something too?”  
“Trying to help.” Ward signed, hands tingling from the shock field’s punishment. “Looked like you needed help.” Fitz only stared.  
“This means “help”.” Fitz said, curling his left hand into a thumbs up with some effort, using his right hand (flat with his palm up) to move it forward. Ward nodded. The sign for help. “Me help you?” Fitz furrowed his brow. Ward shook his head desperately. No, no. He wasn’t asking for a favor. No. “You help me?” Fitz looked utterly confused. He looked down and something seemed to click. “Oh.” He looked back up. “That’s okay. I don’t need any help. I need to do these things on my own.” He started pushing himself toward the door again. He looked back at Ward once before he left.  
Ward heard the high pitched noise again. The red light stopped flashing. He sat back down. He stared at the floor.


	24. Chapter 24

“How do a bunch of teenagers evade the world’s greatest multi-national security agency?” Skye asked mostly herself as she stared at the one page of information she was able to dig up on the Runaways, all speculation and ghost stories.   
“They must have help.” Simmons said from across the room and Skye almost jumped, having forgotten her friend was present, meticulously taking apart one of the guns Ward had been carrying. “Some kind of sponsor.”   
“I’m gonna try digging around on the darknet, check if any of my old contacts are still willing to talk to me.” Skype said, closing one window to open another. Technically she wasn’t allowed to contact any of her old underworld buddies but desperate times and guerilla war tactics wages out of a cramped underground base called for desperate measures.   
“This is incredible.” Simmons murmured. The door slid open and Fitz entered, his face scrunched in what looked like concentration. “Fitz, come look at this!”   
“Hm?” He raised his brows, rolling over to her workstation. There were times, just after he started using the chair, (after he’d gotten well enough to get out of bed) when she would turn to show him something, only to hold it up to his old eye level. Fitz would chuckle and gesture down to his face or make a joke about his eyes being down here, thank you. Simmons would sputter and apologize too many times. Now though, she held out part of the disassembled pistol for him to see, bending appropriately.   
“This…” He took it from her, turning it over in one hand and securitizing its mechanics; the firing pin, the loading mechanism for the ammo, even the handle. “This is the Night-Night gun.” He said, dumbfounded. “But…”  
“But not!” She said and grabbed one of the gun’s magazines off the table. Skye looked up again from her screen. “This is the same ammunition we developed for the Night-Night gun, accept different, better, Fitz. It’s smaller, there are slightly larger doses of the bio-tranquilizer… as far as I can tell, it’s a much more efficient version of the one we came up with.” She was speaking very quickly. Fitz nodded along and there was a pause while he processed everything she’d said. Simmons bit her lip. She’d spoke too quickly hadn’t she? He hadn’t understood! Dammit, Simmons, get your act together and stop confusing your best friend! She opened her mouth to repeat herself slower.  
“It’s a future version.” Fitz said, looking up at her with a viciously curious sparkle in his eye. “It’s the Night-Night gun Mk. 5 or six or 7, Jemma. This is our next project.” He held it aloft. She looked at him strangely. “Or our next, next project. This is our legacy.”  
“What?” Skye said from across the room.   
“We just haven’t invented it yet, Jemma!” Fitz cried, smiling like mad. Simmons pursed her lips. Skye laughed quietly. She hadn’t seen FitzSimmons this… FitzSimmons in ages. Fitz’ chair spun in a full circle. He’d been puling 360’s and wheelie ever since he figured out how.  
“That girl…” He said, handing the half-a-gun back to Simmons. “Arsenic… she had a pet dinosaur, Jemma. You don’t think…”  
“What?” Simmons tilted her head.  
“You… you don’t…” He paused, closed his eyes, collected his thoughts. Skye and Simmons waited patiently. “You don’t…” He continued without opening his eyes. “You don’t think she could be some kind of time traveler, do you?”  
“Fitz.” Simmons’ shoulder sunk. “Don’t be silly.”   
“I mean, what other explanation can there be?!” His eyes shot open and he turned to Skye. “She’s got an animal that’s been extinct for billions of years and a gun from the future! Arsenic is a time traveler!”   
“Make sense to me.” Skye shrugged. Simmons shot her a look and she shrugged hopelessly.   
“We, we, we have to,” Fitz looked around the room frantically. “We have to talk to her!” He pounded the arm of his chair.   
“You’re right.” Skye said, taking a half step back from her console. Simmons’ mouth dropped open a half inch and she looked at Skye with wide eyes. Fitz pointed at Skye triumphantly. “Guys, what if that’s how they do it?” She looked between them. “What if the reason the Runaways are so successful is because they have a time machine? They hide the people they abduct in the past or the future or wherever,”  
“Whenever.” Fitz interjected gently.   
“And that’s why SHIELD could never track them! That’s why everyone thinks they’re a myth because what they’re doing is literally impossible!” She stared at them, suddenly breathing hard, her arms stretched wide.   
“Exactly.” Fitz nodded, pointing again. He and Skye turned to Simmons. Her mouth was pressed into a thing line and she looked between the two of them for a moment.   
“Fitz, Skye,” She breathed. “I love you both very dearly, you know that… but… What you’re saying is insane,” Fitz shoulders fell and Skye sighed dramatically. “But,” Simmons put a finger in the air and she had her friends’ attention again. “But if it’s true… it might just be brilliant.”


	25. Chapter 25

Coulson and May stepped into the pen where they were keeping Ward. Pen, it struck Coulson, wasn't really the right word. Pens were for animals. Ward wasn't an animal. He was a man. A fully-functioning, rational, perfectly capable of not betraying the people who cared about him most man. A human being who had, without a second thought, thrown away and spat upon everything Coulson held dear. Coulson took a deep, calming breath. May put a hand on his back and he smiled comfortingly. When they got to the cell, Ward was asleep. He was lying on the floor crumpled into a ball, hands on his head.   
"Fitz saw him." May said quietly from behind Coulson.   
"What'd he say?"  
"Don't know. He wrote a speech."  
"Hm." Coulson nodded. "Surprised the door didn't wake him up." The siren was annoying and probably set too loud, but necessary. They needed monitor who went to see him. Coulson worried Skye might kill him. She'd been training under May for months and the two of them actually made a pretty good strike team. Skye could kill him if she wanted to. They all had the codes to disable the shock field.   
May could definitely kill him if she wanted to. She was probably the reason he was mute. Fractured larynx's a bitch. But Coulson had asked May not to kill him and that was enough for her. She would take orders from her director and she would do a favor for a friend.   
"We should get an interpreter for him. Maybe a dry erase board." Coulson said.  
"I know ASL." May said and Coulson nodded because of course Melinda May knew sign language. Why wouldn't she?  
"Then I guess we should wake him up." Coulson stepped toward the control panel on the wall. It was connected to the cell and could control the shock field and the lights. And the siren.   
He braced himself and punched in the command. May flinched when the noise rang out in the tiny space, louder than usually. Ward jumped awake and they saw him reach for a gun that Simmons was taking apart in a holster that was in their lockup. They watched his face change as he remembered where he was, eyes focused on the floor as if he couldn't stand to look up. The siren stopped and Coulson and May stepped toward the shock field.   
"Hi Ward." May said and he flinched. It was almost funny. "We need to ask you some questions about the Runaways."


	26. Chapter 26

Ward’s jaw clenched. 

No.  
We wouldn’t tell them anything. He wouldn’t betray is family again.

“Where is their base located?” Coulson asked. Ward noticed he wasn’t quite looking at him. His eyes feel on the wall behind him, or the floor, or the bed. Phil Coulson couldn’t bring himself to look Grant Ward in the eye.   
Ward sat up straight, pressing his back against the concrete wall being him, knees up against his chest, hands down the floor. He starred out at them, focused on a point between May and Coulson.  
“Medical says you suffered no hearing loss.” Coulson said. May started interpreting him anyway, maybe just to be polite, or to be sure he could understand them. “You can hear me, understand. You will answer me.” He stepped forward, gaze still not quite meeting Ward’s. He was trying to be intimidating. It wouldn’t work. “Do you remember what I said to you before they hauled you away?” Yes. That entire disastrous day was burned into his memory. “I told you that you had to figure out what Grant Ward believed in. Is this is, then? Is this where your values lie? Running around with a bunch of teenagers, putting children in danger, hiding from your past.”  
I’m not hiding. Ward thought. He was surprised at how much the accusation bothered him, at how much he wanted to correct Coulson. His fists clenched. He resisted.   
“What’s wrong with you, Ward?” Coulson asked, and started pacing. May stayed where she was, stoic, signing in time with Coulson’s speech, face completely neutral. “Do you enjoy ruining your own life over and over? Do you like fucking up all the time?” First time he’d ever hard Phil Coulson swear. He was starting to get agitated. “Cooperate with us and we can help these kids. Tell us where their base is.” He stopped where he stood, a little ways off from the front of the box, behind May so that she was almost acting like a shield for him. Ward felt himself smile. It was small, and only lasted a second, but he smiled.   
“Tell us where they get their resources.” Phil said. “Who are their major contacts? How did they learn of Jen’s location?” He was glad Coulson hadn’t called her “the power source”. He wasn’t sure if he would’ve been able to keep his hands still. His fists were still clenched on the floor at his sides. “Where did they find you? Why did they take you in?” He stepped forward until his chest was almost pressed against May’s back.   
“Why didn’t you just stay dead?” As his voice almost cracked. May stopped signing. She looked at Coulson over her shoulder. He was looking at Ward now, right at him. “Things were complicated enough without you rising from the dead!” He stepped around May and she let him. “SHIELD is officially classified as a terrorist organization in sixteen countries, Gifteds are running amok without our supervision and Earth could be on the cusp of two separate alien invasions and you pick now to resurface! Do you know why were in that HYDRA facility looking for that power source?” Her name is Jen. “Because we need a way to power our headquarters that doesn’t involve tapping into any central power grid, or producing enough power on our own that anyone could see us, damn it. We need to remain undetected because we need to keep this entire planet safe!” His voice did crack that time. May grabbed his arm. He took another half step forward. “I do not have time for you and your child army, Grant Ward! Now talk!” 

There was a long, drawn out pause. Coulson was breathing heavily. May stepped closer to him, holding his arm. She put her free hand on his side, comforting and supporting him. Ward took a deep breath. He raising one hand slowly and pressed a fist to his chest. He moved it in a slow circle. Coulson looked at May.  
“What the hell does that mean?” He demanded, mad at Ward, not her. May pursed her lips.

“He says he’s sorry.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't worry may gets her bit


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i dont know man this whole chapter is references and worldbuilding. i have had SUCH a month.

Talkback was beginning to regret this decision. It had seemed, at the time, like a good idea to infiltrate “The Playground” through its sewer system. A compound as big at this one had to have an extensive network of huge pipes winding underneath it to keep everything sanitary. The pipes were a bit too small for adult agents to get through, so the kids didn’t have much problem. And sewer pipes weren’t something most people—even secret agents from a formerly shadowy former government agency— didn’t think to secure. There were no traps or trips wires or even cameras.  
However, Talkback, Mettle, Jen, and Bruiser were still crawling on their hands and knees through raw sewage. Hazmat suits or no hazmat suits, every time Talkback looked down, his headlamp illuminated a good two or three inches of literal shit. He couldn’t smell it. He knew he couldn’t smell it. But looking at it made him reel and retch inside his suit. Which made him pause for a second. Which made Mettle crash into him and Jen into Mettle. Bruiser had insisted on leading the charge and was a few feet ahead of them, constantly moving forward.  
“Dude, just stop looking down.” Mettle said, patting

“Oh god, did you just touch me?”  
“We’re both in containment suits, man. Aren’t these some of the prototypes from Jen’s suit? They’re practically impenetrable.”  
“Uggh!” Talkback gagged.  
“Would you two assholes please move?” Jen demanded and Talkback lurched forward reluctantly, every inch of his skin crawling.  
“Let’s take his mind off of it.” Mettle said over his shoulder.  
“How?”  
“We could talk about somethin’… Jen, have you given any thought to a codename you might want?”  
“Do I have to have one?” She asked.  
“Talkback, what’s the rule for codenames?” Mettle asked him and Talkback shook his head to clear it.  
“Uhh… yeah, right. So, Runaways who don’t go into the field like we are now don’t need codenames, but if you wanna be, like, an operative, you need one. You get to pick your own. Well, me and Bruiser named each other but that was a special circumstance. Anyway, if you choose to just be a civilian, you can move into another safehouse, since the Hostile is just for operatives. We have minimal space and the bar means a lot of regular people come and go so it’s easier for people wanting to “reclaim” their kids to wander in.”  
“That shouldn’t be a problem for you,” Mettle said. “What with HYDRA in the state it’s in. the only thing I’d worry about would be these SHIELD jackasses.”  
“Okay.” Jen nodded, seriously considering her future with the Runaways for the first time. She hadn’t exactly had a moment to think before. “How many other safehouses are there?”  
“There are 27 worldwide.” Mettle said. “I’ve only been to a couple but Talkback’s seen all of ‘em, right?”  
“Right.” Talkback said. “Hold on—Bruiser! Dude, slow down and wait for us!” He couldn’t see her anymore and that was opposite of okay. A few moments later she came back into view, stopped and looking over her shoulder. She was moving again as soon as they were back in range. “Okay, so, yeah. The Runaways have been around for a really long time, right? And we’ve set up shop a bunch of places. You can go wherever you want, really. LA, New York, Paris, Prague… you know K’un Lun?”  
“Ku what?” Jen furrowed her brow.  
“It’s this place in Tibet. Kind of hard to explain, really. There was a dragon and a dimensional rift and—anyway, our buddies Amadeus and Randy,”  
“One of ‘ems a kid genius and could probably go head to head with Bruce fuckin’ Banner in a physics quiz, and the other’s a martial arts prodigy trained in K’un Lun.”  
“They run Xanadu, which has to be near KL ‘cause fuck having it in the city proper. Way easier to just scale the mountain than try getting entrance into that place. Anyway, yeah, you can give in sciency martial arts paradise on a mountain if you want.”  
“Nah.” Jen said, laughing.  
“That’s fair.” Mettle said. “What about Victor’s place?”  
“Oh yeah, Successor’s a cool guy. Runs Sanctuary, this apartment building outside Buffalo. Mostly heirs out there. Kids of mad scientists or tyrant or whatever. There’s Sister Grim’s place, the Treehouse. Real nice. Close to hear, tons of vehicles to play with.”  
“They have a helicopter and a tank.” Mettle smiled.  
“For what?” Jen asked incredulously.  
“In case they need a tank.” Mettle laughed.  
“If you wanna be in an all-girls place there’s Arcadia run by the Night Witches.”  
“Yeah, they’re cool. Ava, Delphyne, and Megan. They let you into Arcadia, Talkback?”  
“Nah, not inside proper, just around the perimeter to check out the defense they set up. It’s a compound with a lot of little houses and feminism.”  
“Sounds cool.” Jen said. “What about someplace with… with a lot of trees?”  
“Trees?” Mettle looked back at her. “The Treehouse is in a tree. Well, the main place is, and then there’s the Canopy around it which is a bunch of smaller tree houses and cabins.”  
“Yeah, it’s the only place I can think of with a lot of green. It’s a fun place to be; ton of space, lots of people. Didn’t Reptile just move in there?”  
“Yeah. And Maddie cam with him. I think you’d get along with her, Jen.”  
“Okay, I guess I’ll think about it.” She shrugged as best she could while crawling. Bruiser was too far ahead again and Talkback called her. Se shuffled backwards toward them until they were all together again.  
“We’re talking about Jen’s codename and safehouse, Bruise.” Mettle said.  
“That’s not a decision someone should make in a sewer pipe, guys.” Bruiser might have laughed under better circumstances. “I already hate this place.”  
“I’m glad I’m not the only one.” Talkback shivered. “Took me forever to find the blueprints to this place in their stupid hidden network, and this was a bad plan.”  
“It’s a good plan.” Mettle sighed. “It’s just gross for a while is all.”  
“Why do they call it the Playground, anyway?” Bruiser asked. “They kept making fun of us for being young and they call their dumb underground cement box headquarters “The Playground”.”  
“We should write a letter to Combover.” Talkback laughed and put on a voice. “Dear Sir, we are quite displeased at your arbitrary hypocrisy as it pertains to the name of your fancy-pants HQ. We humbly request that you either change the name or stop bein’ a dick all the time, man, damn.” Laughter echoed through the pipe.


End file.
